


In Sickness and in Health

by glowlikethefireflies



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Drama, F/M, Fluff, Love, Mild Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Post-Season/Series 02, Pure Unadulterated Fluff, SO MUCH FLUFF, Shirbert, Sick Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-26 01:13:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15652737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glowlikethefireflies/pseuds/glowlikethefireflies
Summary: Anne is sick, so Gilbert stops by to give her some company...at the direction of Marilla.Mostly light hearted fluff.Post Season 2





	In Sickness and in Health

Marilla Cuthbert strode up the hill to the home of one Gilbert Blythe. It was late April, and the frost was just finally leaving the ground. The spring sun shone brightly from above, blasting rays upon the puddles collecting in the dips and ditches across the muddy grass. Marilla hiked her skirt as she stepped over these dips, trying carefully to keep herself dry. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Gilbert carrying stacks of wood not far ahead. 

“Gilbert?” she inquired across the yard. 

Gilbert spun around and raised his eyebrows.

“Ms. Cuthbert! How—um, how are you this morning?” he asked as he drew nearer.

“Oh fine, thank you. And you?” she replied as they got within reasonable speaking distance.

“Excellent, thank you,” he paused and peered around Marilla, “what brings you here today?”

“Right, well, you see…Matthew and I are going to Charlottetown for the weekend. I have a few errands to run and Matthew—well, he has his own affairs to deal with. We would bring Anne, but she is feeling a bit under the weather.”

Gilbert nodded as she spoke but appeared a bit uncertain as to where she was going with this information.

“So, what I was wondering is if you would be at all available to check in on Anne while we are away,” she continued.

“Oh!” Gilbert seemed surprised.

“I know that seems like a rather odd request, and, given the circumstances, a bit untoward. But I know that you are a kind, honorable young man…and you seem to care a very great deal about her,” Marilla raised an eyebrow, “Anne says she will be fine on her own…but based on past experiences with leaving her alone…let’s just say I’d rather not. She tends to get rather frightened while she’s by herself. So, if it’s not a burden…”

“Of course I can check on Anne,” Gilbert replied. 

“Oh, that would be wonderful, Gilbert,” Marilla smiled, “You are free to help yourself to food. I’ll be sure to cook you a fine meal as a thank you when we return.”

“Thank you,” he smiled, “Bash and Mary are actually out of town themselves, so I’m alone this weekend, too.”

“Oh my, well then that’s good to hear she may provide you some company.”

“Yes…so long as she doesn’t shoo me away,” Gilbert laughed. 

Marilla smiled curtly, “I’m sure of it she won’t.”

“Well, I’ll try my best.”

“Thank you, Gilbert,” Marilla replied and started to walk away, but hesitated, “you know, Anne can be a bit—you must know that she can be rather stubborn, and she isn’t always the most forthcoming with...well, her upbringing skewed her perception of people and life.”

Gilbert nodded slowly in response.

“In time, however, she tends to come around…in time,” she smiled.

Gilbert smiled back, “I understand. Good day, Ms. Cuthbert.”

Marilla smiled warmly and headed back toward Green Gables.

Anne heard a quiet knock at the door just hours later. She felt a nervous knot in her stomach. Her throat was sore, and her limbs were weak. As she approached the door, her legs felt like cinderblocks. Anne was annoyed at first that Marilla wouldn’t let her go into town, but now she understood. The thought of being out in a bumpy carriage while feeling this ill would be a torture. She opened the door just as another knock started rapping against the wood.

“Jeez Louise, could you be anymore impat—” Anne froze.

Gilbert stood before her with a smile plastered on his face.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. 

“Hi,” Gilbert chuckled, “what a lovely greeting.”

“H—hi,” Anne blushed. 

“I heard you were under the weather, so I came to give you some company,” he said.

Anne eyed him suspiciously, “did Marilla send you?”

Gilbert slowly nodded, “Yeah, she said that you may want some company and, in your state—”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Anne huffed as she crossed her arms.

Gilbert swallowed and looked down. 

“I apologize. If you don’t want me here, I can leave,” he said and turned toward the porch steps. 

“Wait!” Anne reached out and grasped at the cool, spring air. 

Gilbert paused, watching her carefully.

She sighed and rolled her eyes, “come in.”

Gilbert smirked and walked toward the door. Anne stepped back as he approached, never taking her eyes off him. She breathed in for a moment before closing the door. Just now, she realized her disheveled state. Her hair was out of its usual braids, slightly knotted, and unwashed. She smoothed it down the best she could as he took off his coat. 

“You needn’t stay long. I’m perfectly capable of staying here all by myself,” Anne said defiantly. 

“I know,” he smiled.

................................................

It was quiet. Anne now sat on the sofa in the parlor. Gilbert had brought her a blanket, which she was grateful for as she sank into another round of severe chills. He sat on the chair next to the sofa, watching her from a safe distance. But Anne grew tired of his worried gaze, so she broke the silence with her thoughts.

“Do you have to sit there…staring at me like that?”

Gilbert scoffed, “Anne Shirley Cuthbert, you are a piece of work. I happen to be looking out for your health and safety.”

“How so?” she asked.

“Well, you appear to have a fever...from what I can tell. Your symptoms are not improving, they are getting worse.”

Anne sighed and nodded, “I do feel worse than when Marilla and Matthew left, I’ll give you that.”

“I’ll take what I can get,” Gilbert laughed. 

They were silent for another moment or two, but it was not an uncomfortable silence. Anne picked at her fingernails as Gilbert messed with the fire he’d started for them. 

“Thank you,” Anne said quietly.

Gilbert settled back into the chair and sighed. 

“You don’t need to thank me, Anne. I’m just doing what any friend would do,” he replied.

“Oh, we’re friends now? We sure have come a long way from cracking slates, pulling hair, and calling each other names,” she smiled in her weakened state.

“Hey, I never called you names,” Gilbert scrunched his face. 

“What do you call ‘Carrots’?” her voice squeaked. 

“That was only done out of affection,” he replied.

“Affection?” she sat up straighter on the sofa. 

Gilbert nodded, “yes, it was because I liked you and you kept ignoring me.”

Anne rolled her eyes and threw herself back further on the sofa with a sigh. Gilbert paused and watched as she pulled the blanket up close to her face. 

“Why did you ignore me anyway?” he asked suddenly. 

Anne opened her mouth, but no words did come out. She was unsure of how much to tell him. Or if she could tell him the real reason for her strange behavior. Ever since they’d called a “truce”, she’d regretted treating him so poorly. But she couldn’t help it; it was natural instinct for her to be defensive. It was how she survived at the orphanage and every foster home she was placed. But to admit that to anyone would not be easy.

“According to the other girls, I wasn’t allowed to talk to you,” she started, “one of them had already ‘claimed’ you.”

“Claimed me?” he chuckled, “What does that even mean?”

“Well, you see,” she sat up again, “She had had a crush on you for over three years…therefore, in their minds, you were to be her beau before anyone else.”

“That’s ridiculous,” he said, shaking his head, “would I have no say in the matter? Just…’Gilbert, you’re mine now’?”

“Apparently,” Anne said slowly, sounding out each syllable.

“So, they must have told you about me before we met, right? By the way you ran away the moment I tried to talk to you,” he said.

“That’s not why I—I…I,” she stopped.

“You…?” he said, encouraging her to continue.

She sighed and shook her head, “it doesn’t matter what I…I just wasn’t used to people being nice to me.”

“Fair enough.”

He didn’t push her. He never did. Sure, he teased her now and then. But that was never out of hatred or to embarrass her in any way. He was actually one of the kindest people she’d ever met. But she’d die before admitting that to him. She sighed and realized maybe he did deserve to know why she was the way she was. She did smack him with her slate after all.

“Before Marilla and Matthew adopted me, when I was at the orphanage and…with families in foster care, I grew accustomed to being…unwanted,” she started.

Gilbert watched her intently as she spoke. Her fists were balled up in her lap. She was clearly tense as this story did not come easy to her. 

“I was ridiculed for having red hair and freckles. Girls, they would…do things to me that weren’t…” she paused for a moment.

“They told me that no one would ever want me or to be friends with me or-or love me.” Anne’s voice cracked. She pulled the blanket over her face as she began to quietly sob. 

Gilbert stood up and slowly made his place beside her on the sofa. He hesitantly reached out and pulled the blanket off her face. 

“Anne, I’m so sorry. If I’d known that about you and your experience and—I would never have—” 

“No, it’s not your fault!” she interrupted, still choking back tears.

“But it was childish at best,” he said as his hand fell back into his lap. 

“No, I shouldn’t have ignored you. That was childish. I was stubborn and trying to make friends. I actually really liked you.”

“Yeah?” he smiled softly at her.

Anne rolled her eyes in response. 

“Well,” he started, “I take no shame in admitting that I have always liked you…from the moment we met and even when you cracked your slate across my face.”

“Why?” she dared to ask. 

“Why do I like you?” he chuckled. 

She nodded and remained silent.

Gilbert smiled at her and settled into the sofa as he jokingly rubbed his chin in a thinking pose. 

“Well, I liked that you didn’t throw yourself at my feet like all the other girls…”

Anne shot him a look and he chuckled, shaking his head.

“But really…you seemed to hate me, which intrigued me all the more.”

“I didn’t hate you,” she said quickly.

“Well, you rebuffed me on multiple occasions, so that’s what I had assumed…anyway…I liked that you read poetry with such passion and investment…. I liked your feisty personality and that it was clear you would take no nonsense from anyone, including me. I thought to myself, ‘I had to know this girl’.” he smiled as he looked down at his hands. Anne swallowed hard as he looked up at her again before continuing. 

“And I like your red hair…it’s different and—and the way it looks in the sunlight as the rays reflect a golden color…it’s quite picturesque,” he said, his eyes softening under her gaze.

“You’re just trying to make me feel better,” she said, her voice cracking.

“Anne, you’re so smart and driven. What happened in the past…it doesn’t have to dictate what you do now. I believe Avonlea gave you a new life. A better life. A life where you can grow and learn…and despite what any of those other girls may say, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care for them the way I care for you. There’s nothing you can say or do to change that.”

“Thank you, Gilbert,” she smiled through her tears.

Gilbert analyzed her face for a moment, taking in each and every feature. There were very few occasions he’d been close enough to actually do so. His eyes wandered down from hers to the bridge of her nose; he noted how small and dainty it actually was. His eyes fell to her lips; they appeared pink and soft. He then traced her delicate jawline before meeting her eyes again. 

Anne’s face had gone rather serious. 

Just as he’d been inspecting her face, she was inspecting his. Of course, she’d always found Gilbert rather handsome. Unusually handsome. Every time her eyes locked with his, a rather strange sensation overcame her. It was unlike any feeling she’d ever felt before. But she only ever felt it when she looked at him. It was not an unpleasant feeling; rather, her stomach felt as though she’d just eaten a warm bowl of soup or something equally as comforting. Comforting. That’s what she felt when she looked at Gilbert Blythe. 

“Gilbert?” she said quietly. 

“Yes?” he replied, just as quiet.

“I’m so cold. Do you think you could...would it be alright if we just stayed here for a while?” she asked. 

Gilbert nodded in response. She pulled her blanket up and carefully shifted her position to settle in next to him. Ever so cautiously she rested her side against him and brought her knees up to her chest. She slowly sank into him and placed her hand over his chest.

“Is this okay?” she whispered up at him.

He nodded, “yes, it’s—it’s perfect.”

She smiled shyly and slowly lowered her head against his chest. Her hand moved over his heart; she felt its rhythm beat strong and steady against her hand. There was something quite comforting about feeling his heart beat. It was soothing, like the sound of a cat’s purr or a crackling fire. 

Maybe Anne didn’t want a tragical romance after all. Maybe she just wanted this.


End file.
